DailyFlash: Loose

It's bright in the rat room; strip lights illuminate from above and heatlamps glow from within each of the glass cages. The cages form a grid against the wall, a row of seven at the bottom and eight running up: fifty-six in total. Of course, up and down is relative in the space station. On the opposite wall the vast blue ocean shimmers majestically through the port window. And rats seem almost to swim on the surface; white rats with long tails that have escaped their cages, all the doors open. Rats floating, bouncing off walls or gnawing at cables that dangle from flashing instruments. The scientist in white chases, the coattail of her jacket trailing like a cape, one arm flailing and the other hugging fluffy white bundles to her chest. 

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